Subdudes blend rock, blues, folk and gospel

Even though they got their start two decades ago when a group of rowdy rockers unplugged for an impromptu acoustic set, the Subdudes are anything but subdued.

Jay N. Miller

Even though they got their start two decades ago when a group of rowdy rockers unplugged for an impromptu acoustic set, the Subdudes are anything but subdued.

It was 1987 and the setting was the legendary New Orleans club Tipitina’s. Eight albums and 23 years later, the Subdudes still have that late-night jam vibe and will warm up Foxboro at the Showcase Live on Thursday, March 11.

There’s a real feel, not of a band on stage, but of a bunch of friends sitting around your living room, the main percussion coming just from tambourine.

Of the band’s five members, bassist/percussionist Tim Cook had the most roundabout path to joining. Three of the original Subdudes were members of a New Orleans honky-tonk rock band called the Continental Drifters who showed up for a night of acoustic jamming at Tipitina’s. Some folks had complained that the Continental Drifters were too loud, so this gig – with guitarist Tommy Malone, John Magnie on accordion, bassist Johnny Ray Allen, and Allen’s roommate, Steve Amedee, on mandolin – was billed tongue-in-cheek as “subdued.”

The quartet soon abandoned their other projects to focus on the Subdudes, and guitarist Jimmy Messa joined soon after.

Their music, blending rock, blues, folk and gospel with pinpoint vocal harmonies, had been an immediate hit with fans, and by 1989 their debut album was out. The band members had moved to Fort Collins, Colo., in 1987, seeking a bit of creative space away from the Crescent City’s hubbub.

By 1994 the Subdudes had a major label deal and their album “Annunciation” hit No. 19 on the Billboard charts. “Primitive Streak” in 1996 did even better, reaching No. 15 on the Heatseekers chart, but by that time the label deal was kaput. Malone and Allen had moved back to New Orleans and as the band dealt with various frustrations, they decided to call it quits at the end of 1996.

Cook had become a close friend of all the Subdudes during their Colorado days, and became their road manager then joined Amedee and Magnie in a trio called The Three Twins.

Before long, there was increasing call for a Subdudes reunion, and impromptu combinations of The Three Twins with Malone’s rock band. Allen didn’t want to rejoin the group so Cook took over on bass when the Subdudes reunited in 2002 and went on to record four albums. “Flower Petals,” was released in August and it is a concept album set in the Old West, where a soldier has all kinds of romantic trouble.

“Back when we were recording the ‘Miracle Mule’ album in 2003-2004, we had this song ‘Flower Petals,’ which didn’t make the album,” Cook recalled. “We simply expanded that song’s story, coming up with songs to go around that. We’ve got love, murder, a mystery in there, with a whole cast of characters.”

Cook said it was the first time the Subdudes did a concept album. “A lot of the songs are different from what fans might expect.”

He added: “Ideally, our dream was to create a play around these songs, so we could perform it like a musical, actors in a theater playing these parts while we performed the music. The only way to do all those songs in a show would be to do them chronologically, maybe with a narrator. So, what we do now is play a handful of them, along with our typical Subdudes set of tunes from all through our career.”

Did that Old West theme reflect the band’s dual roots, one foot in New Orleans, one foot in Colorado?

“We draw from all of that, but when it comes to the grooves in our music, that traces right back to New Orleans,” Cook said.

And despite the band’s hiatus and changes “once you get us all together, everything becomes that special Subdudes sound.”

The Subdudes played at the Narrows Center in Fall River in November, but this will be their first trip to Showcase Live. “There’s something about crowds up there in the Northeast, where you people really love the music,” Cook said. “We love the Narrows, it’s a cool gig that always sells out. We’re looking forward to playing the Showcase, and we already have so many favorite venues in the Northeast. We feed off the energy of the crowds – they always make us play better.”